Maelstrom
by nytecat
Summary: After the events of Mass Effect 2, the Normandy stands alone against the Reaper threat. Exiled, labeled as traitors, the crew fights a desperate battle against the annihilation of all sentient life. A continuation of Drifting.


**MAELSTROM**

_Author's note: This story is a continuation of my other fanfic, 'DRIFTING'. It will probably be considered AU when ME 3 comes out._

**Chapter 1: THE MESSAGE**

The husk spiraled like a wounded leviathan, bleeding a trail of debris in its wake. Gaping wounds scored its hull. Deep trenches that exposed the bones of its damaged structure. Whatever fires had raged were dead now, leaving cold scorched marks raked across blistered metal.

An Alliance starship dropped out of FTL like a silent spectre.

The NSV Dunkirk descended upon the batarian merchant freighter like a bird of prey. Grappling hooks engaged, pulling the destroyed starship to the port of the frigate. The two starships drifted alongside each other.

Aboard the Dunkirk, the bridge was a hive of activity.

Kaidan exited the elevator as he buttoned up his jacket, blinking the sleep from his eyes. A wave of voices washed over him, a swirling sea of tactical chatter. He stood still to listen for a moment to the mission updates.

An ensign bumped into him, breaking his concentration. Kaidan steadied the young lad who quickly saluted before proceeding on his way. He eyed the scurrying ensign and shook his head slightly in amusement. It was hard to imagine that he had been that green once too.

He scanned the CIC and found his quarry by the navigator station. His XO seemed to be deep in discussion with Chief Navigator Hunter, a grizzled bear of a man with a bluff face framed by a short grey-splotched beard. They seemed to be studying the information on a datapad in his XO's hands.

Lieutenant Aisha Kumar was in her mid twenties with a confident mien that belied her age. She could have been the Alliance's poster child for how an Officer should behave. She epitomized cool and calm under fire. There was not a sable strand of her thick wavy hair out of place, which was pulled back into a tight bun. No matter the late hour and that she had pulled a double shift, her uniform still looked like it had just been freshly pressed.

Although she exuded an aura of calm strength, she seemed as fragile as crystal standing next to Hunter. His wide berth seemed to exaggerate how lean her body really was. But then again, Hunter would make anyone seem small and fragile.

She had lovely aristocratic features with a dark coffee complexion but no one was ever so foolish as to say so to her face. Those that did often found themselves on the floor, writhing in pain. Aisha had a long face with a slightly hawkish nose set between high cheek bones. Her slanted emerald eyes were always serious and burned with emotion. She had slim full lips and a wide mouth that rarely smiled. Those lips were now pressed tightly together as if she did not like what she was seeing in the datapad.

Aisha was the first to notice Kaidan's approach. Hunter turned to see what had caught her attention. When he saw Kaidan, he nodded in greeting. The XO deferentially handed Kaidan the datapad to review with a slight bow of the head. When she straightened up, she could look Kaidan levelly in the eyes.

"Talk to me, Aisha," he prompted the Lieutenant as he examined the datapad. It was a summary of the scans from the batarian freighter.

His XO had a clipped, concise manner of speaking as if she found words to be a waste of breath. It matched the stiff way she moved as if she had a steel rod for a spine. The trio walked towards the cockpit as she delivered her report.

"Analysis of the merchant vessel's damage indicate that the raider starship had superior firepower," she said, her deep voice as cool as ice. "The batarian ship never even stood a chance. Their engines were crippled with powerful, precision shots."

"It makes no sense, Commander," Hunter barked, interrupting Aisha as she was about to continue.

Kaidan did not miss the slight irritation that flashed in her eyes. She still was not used to Hunter's tendency to bowl over anything in his way.

"The merchant ship should have picked up the raiders on ladar before they even got close to enough to attack," the Navigator continued. He sounded angry but then again, he always sounded angry. His beard seemed to bristle in indignation at the thought.

If Aisha did not have such a tight rein on her emotions, Kaidan had the feeling his XO would have rolled her eyes at the Navigator.

Instead, she coolly countered the Navigator's worries. "Perhaps the ship's ladar was faulty and did not pick up the attacking vessel. It happens. Merchants sometimes try to cut corners to boost their profit margins."

Hunter snorted in disgust. Aisha's eyes narrowed dangerously but she did not retaliate.

"Bah!" the Navigator replied. "It's not as simple as that, ma'am. That merchant ship was hit fast and hard which means that the raider ship came out of nowhere. It's not impossible to do with the technology we have today. Look at the old Normandy with her Tantalus Drive Core."

"Are we talking now about pirate ghost ships, Hunter?" Kaidan murmured wryly.

Perhaps there was something in Kaidan's voice that made Hunter hesitate before responding. The Commander caught the warning look that Aisha shot the Navigator. He wondered why his crew and others in the Alliance acted edgy around him whenever the Normandy was mentioned. The old Normandy had been destroyed over two years ago by the Collectors.

Unless, they were concerned about bringing up Shepard with Kaidan. Mention the ex-hero of the Citadel and people seemed to walk on eggshells around him.

Hunter shook his head slightly as if to dispel that Kaidan's suggestion.

"No, the old Normandy's dead, sir. But I'm just saying that it would not be inconceivable that the raider possessed advanced stealth technology."

Kaidan wondered how the Navigator would react if he knew how close he came to the truth. How would the universe react if they knew that Shepard had teamed up with Cerberus and she was causing havoc with her new Normandy? He frowned. Shepard had chosen her own path and betrayed the Alliance. She was a traitor and as good as dead to him now.

The Commander hurriedly smoothed his features before Aisha and Hunter could misinterpret his dark expression.

"Anything else, Aisha?"

The XO spoke up quickly as if she wanted to fill in the awkward silence that had emerged.

"Initial scans reveal that the ship's hull was breached from the underside. The raiders must have come up from the below cargo hold and caught the crew by surprise," she said crisply.

Kaidan enlarged the schematics of the merchant vessel. He mentally plotted the route the raiders had to take to seize control of the starship. The attack had to be swift and deadly to neutralize hostiles and eliminate resistance with minimal casualties on both sides. There was no doubt that this raid was done by veteran combatants.

The trio arrived at the cockpit. The helmsman, Rei Kato, turned to look over her shoulder when she heard their oncoming footsteps. Obsidian eyes studied them for a moment before she turned her attention back to the screen; her small pony tail bobbing with the movement. Rei's normal cheerful countenance was gravely serious now.

"Life signs?" Kaidan enquired.

Rei's fingers flew over the keyboard, summoning the scans onto the screen. Her movements were light, quick and deft. She flew the Dunkirk the same way.

"Batarian" Rei replied. Her thin black brows furrowed in anger as her voice took on a sharpness to it. "And human."

Kaidan frowned. There was only one reason why humans would be on board a batarian ship. He studied the scans on Rei's screen. It was a large merchant ship but the question was... what cargo had they been carrying?

"Any word from the ship?" he asked the helmsman.

Rei shook her head quickly. "We have tried hailing them but there's no reply," she answered. "Maybe they can't answer."

"Let me try," Kaidan said then quietly. Rei opened a com channel and nodded for the Commander to proceed. He took a breath and announced:

"Batarian merchant vessel, this is Commander Alenko of the NSV Dunkirk. We have received your distress signal. Please respond."

Silence met his announcement. Kaidan shrugged nonchalantly. It had been worth a try. He turned to Aisha who had a rare gleam in her eyes.

"Take a team out and sweep the ship," he ordered his XO. "And be careful out there."

Aisha nodded briefly. She seemed relieved to be able to do something - or eager to shoot something. She saluted quickly, pivoted and headed for the elevator with rapid strides.

There was nothing to do but wait.

A commander should not leave the starship. He had to trust his shore party to do their duty even though he wanted to be there, on the ground, and see for himself the situation. Kaidan smiled a bit at the thought. Commander Shepard would have chafed under that restriction. She had taken every opportunity that she could to personally lead missions. If she had not been a Spectre, she would have been chained to the CIC as Kaidan now was. The smile faded. Those times are in the past, Kaidan, he told himself. The past should stay dead.

Suddenly, the com came alive with a burst of static.

"This is Kumar. We are at the docking hatch."

A few minutes passed.

"Docking hatch is locked. Arming explosives."

More moments of distorted static. Then noise. The sound of screaming metal and roaring flames. 'Boom' did not quite describe the colossal cacophony of noise.

"Hatch has been blown. Shore party has boarded the merchant vessel. Conducting sweep of the ship now."

Minutes ticked by. The silence was interrupted intermittently by Aisha's status reports.

"Signs of an intense battle here, Commander."

"Making our way towards the bridge."

"Oh my God."

Kaidan felt his blood chill. Aisha - cool and calm Aisha - never swore.

A few seconds passed. When Aisha spoke again, her voice was quiet and solemn.

"Commander, I think that you should see this for yourself."

* * *

Kaidan smelled them first before he saw them. Even the air filters could not scrub out the stale rancid odour of unwashed flesh and dirtied clothes. As soon as he stepped through the merchant vessel's airlock, the smell hit him like a fist to the nose and stuck in his throat like barnacles on rock.

Lining both sides of the scorched hallway were nine batarians dressed in plainclothes on their knees with their hands on the back of their hands. The batarians were being guarded under the watchful eyes of a security detail led by Aisha.

His XO sharply saluted him as he came up to her. She looked at ease with her weapons holstered on her armour and her helmet tucked under an arm.

"It seems our merchant vessel is not an innocent lamb caught by a wolf," Aisha said. "They were into human trafficking."

She indicated a group of eleven children being examined by the Dunkirk's medics further down the hallway. But they were too clean to be the source of the malodorous smells. The Commander stared at them; something about their appearance was odd. Then he realized it, they wore clean clothes and looked like they had freshly showered.

Even so, Kaidan felt his heart twist as if stabbed with a knife when he looked at the children. The cold chill in his bones returned, stronger than ever.

The slaves had the same dead eyes set in hollow faces. Most were living skeletons. They were probably expired stock that the batarians could not sell. Many slavers like their slaves young because they were easier to break and indoctrinate. These children varied in age from mid teens to ten years old.

"We found them in the bridge," Aisha commented quietly. Her eyes lingered briefly on a young boy of ten. "They said that the raiders locked them in there to keep them safe."

Kaidan felt his surprise show on his face. "I never knew that pirates were so charitable," he murmured dryly. He shook his head. "What else can you tell me?"

"The ship's been cleaned to the bone, sir," Aisha continued with her report. "Weapons. Armour. Salvageable engine and ship parts. Most of the food; the children had food with them to last three days. Medicine. Necessities. Even the bedding is gone too."

The Commander sighed. It was the same modus operandi. There was no mistaking it. At least, this time there were witnesses he could interrogate.

Kaidan moved over to the batarian slavers. He picked out the slaver captain by his clothes - which were better than the rest of his crew - and his demeanor. Whereas the other batarians sat despondently, looking at the ground, this batarian stared challenging at any Alliance soldier who would meet his gaze.

"Is this your ship?" he asked. "Where are the rest of you?"

"She took them," the slaver captain answered. He laughed, darkly bitter. "She gave us a choice: join her or rot in prison."

Kaidan sighed. So that was the story. How many had it been so far? 21 or 23 raids in the last five weeks? He had lost count. All of the raided ships they had found had been abandoned. Their crews must have obviously chosen to join the pirates.

"Who took them? Who is she?" Aisha questioned the captain.

The batarian growled his eyes menacing and furious. "A human. She did not give her name," he spat.

A bolt of dread shot through Kaidan. It was a cold feeling that seeped from the darkest recesses of his heart to the rest of his body.

"Tell me everything that happened. Don't leave anything out," he ordered harshly.

"Why should I, human scum?" the slaver captain sneered.

Kaidan leaned close and pulled the batarian to his feet. "Because I had asked very nicely," he said in quiet, dangerous voice.

Perhaps it was the emotionless look in his eyes that made the slaver captain reconsider his position.

"Fine," he snarled.

Kaidan released him and shoved the batarian backwards into the bulkhead.

As the batarian captain told his story, the cold feeling in Kaidan grew until it turned his soul to ice.

* * *

It had been a day like any other. Krudos was in a foul mood from a bad transaction. The client had refused to pay for the shipment so he had to take back the cargo. As such, he was in the cargo hold, busy beating one of the human slaves with a rod to vent out his frustrations. He loved to hear the young whelp whimper and cry for mercy.

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the ship. It caused the batarian to lose his footing. The child he was tormenting took the opportunity to flee into the arms of his comrades. They huddled together, a whimpering ball of pathetic misery. Krudos spared them an annoyed glance, he will get back to them later.

"What the hell was that?" Krudos asked his second-in-command through his ear com.

There was a spat of static then Gabon answered.

"Captain!" his second-in-command reported from the bridge. His voice was high and panicked. "Our kinetic barriers are gone. They're completely blown away!"

"That's impossible, Gabon!" he snarled. "We were only hit once."

Another explosion rocked the ship.

Gabon was breathing fast and hard into the com. He began to gibber. "Captain, our engines have been blown apart. We're dead in space! We're dead in space!"

Krudos ran out of the cargo hold. The doors closed behind him and automatically locked. He raced to an in-wall ladder and climbed up a level. His thoughts raced as he sprinted towards the bridge. Who the hell had attacked them? Who had the balls to attack them? The Alliance?

The captain reached the bridge to find Gabon ordering an evacuation.

"Pull yourself together, man!" the captain snarled as he punched his second-in-command, sending him crashing to the deck.

Krudos kicked the young batarian once for his cowardice then turned to his bridge crew.

"Now, someone better tell me what's happening," he ordered.

A crew member manning the ladar pod spoke up.

"The ship came out of nowhere, sir."

"What is it – Alliance? Turian? Asari?" Krudos demanded.

The crew member inquired the sensors. He shook his head. "Its signature seems like Alliance."

"Captain, the raider is hailing us," another crew member announced.

Krudos sneered. An Alliance vessel decided to pick a fight with them? He hated humans with a passion.

"Put it on speaker," he said.

A voice came over the loud speaker. Krudos had trouble distinguishing between male and female human voices. They all sounded like shrill klixen to him. He supposed that the voice was female because it was smoother than other humans he had heard. What caught his ear though was the calm, dangerous confidence that the voice possessed.

"Batarian vessel, surrender peacefully now."

Krudos did not like her superior tone. He sneered at the unseen human. "Surrender?" he snarled. The very word was an insult. "Never!"

"This is not a negotiation. Surrender now or die."

The batarian laughed. Although he could not see the human's expression, he had a feeling that she must have been shocked at his audacity.

"If you try to board us, we'll kill all the human cargo," he taunted. There, that should give the human pause, he thought. They were all weak-hearted fools when it came to their race. "Go on! Try it! We'll bash their little heads in!"

There was a long silence.

Then the human heaved a soft sigh. She sounded tired.

"I'm done talking."

The ship bucked violently. Krudos fell to his knees as an explosion rumbled in the distance.

"Captain, there's a hull breach in the cargo bay!" one of his crew cried out. He was looking at a schematic of ship. It flared red in the cargo hold.

Krudos' eyes widened in cold realization. The bitch had been playing him for time. While she distracted him, she sent a boarding party to his ship. Their hull had been breached before they knew it.

"What are you waiting for?" he screamed at his men. "Kill them all!"

Krudos led his men to engage the enemies that were in the cargo hold. Fifteen humans swarmed out of the crater in the hull like an infestation of vorcha. With their superior numbers, it should have been the batarians who won the battle.

But, the batarian captain had underestimated the ferocity of the humans.

The firefight was fast and furious. With brutal militant efficiency, the human raiders decimated the undisciplined batarian resistance and subdued the survivors. By the battle's end, half of Krudos men lay dead.

The human raiders sealed the breach in the hull with a dome shield to prevent venting when the shuttle they had used to carry them to ship left.

He and his crew were lined against the bulkhead, watched by the humans. They were not wearing Alliance issue military armour so they must have been mercs or raiders. A large human man with night skin seemed to be leading the raiders. The way that he moved told Krudos that the man was a soldier.

Krudos watched the human man but it seemed like he was waiting for something. He chatted idly with the other humans as they stood watch over the batarian crew.

A tensed half an hour passed.

Suddenly, the airlock hissed and growled as its unlocking mechanisms activated. The door slid open.

A human woman walked through the airlock like she owned the ship. She was dressed in ebony armour with a N7 insignia blazoned across the chest plate. Strangely, she was flanked by a male turian and a female quarian. All three were heavily armed.

As soon as the airlock closed behind her, the woman removed her helmet and lazily shook out her short russet hair. Cold blue-violet eyes studied the line of batarians. Her eyes held no expression but Krudos could see that she was not impressed.

"Good job, Jacob," the woman congratulated the raider leader.

Her voice. It sounded familiar. Then Krudos recognised it. She had been the voice on the com! He resisted the urge to charge the bitch and instead waited for a perfect opportunity to make his move. Yes, he could wait a few more minutes for his revenge.

The raider leader saluted in reply. "They're slavers, Commander. Transporting young human children in the cargo."

This time, there was raw emotion in her eyes when she looked at the batarians. Her hand twitched towards her sidearm then fell slowly. She seemed to struggle to compose herself but when she did, she was as emotionless as winter.

"Have Doctor Chakwas take a look at the children," she ordered.

The man called Jacob saluted again and spoke into his com link in rapid code. His com spat in reply. Krudos could not make out what was said.

Krudos studied the human woman. She seemed to be distracted. If he made his move now, he might be able to take her hostage, commandeer a shuttle and when he was safe and clear, he would make her pay – oh yes, she would pay in exquisite agony – for his lost crew and ship.

He tensed and readied himself to grab her.

"Don't move," the woman warned. "My bullet, your brain. Think about it."

Her gun was pointed straight at his head. He had not seen her draw her weapon.

"Try it," the woman encouraged, her voice dark with desire. "God knows, I should shoot you all dead."

He stared down the muzzle of her weapon. He had no doubt that she could kill him before his hands could wrap around her neck and snap it like a salarian backbone.

The human lowered her weapon but did not holster it. She seemed disappointed.

At the far end of the line, one of his crew made a run for it. He got several steps before the turian shot him with his rifle. He fell down dead, staining the floor red. Bits of him still rained down several seconds later. Within moments, the smell of blood and molten metal tainted the air.

"He moved," the turian told the human woman who merely arched an eyebrow in reply.

She calmly turned her attention to the batarians.

At her gesture, a soldier brought out a bundle of clothes and laid it in front of the slavers. His crew stared at the articles of clothing suspiciously. A buzz of anger rose in the silence.

The human woman began to pace along the line. No, pacing was the wrong word. She prowled like a varren on the hunt.

"Now, you have two options," she said quietly. As she spoke, she made eye contact with all the batarians.

She held up one finger.

"You can stay here and rot in a prison," she continued with a malicious smile.

The smile disappeared. She held up a second finger.

"Or you can join my crew. When our mission is done, I will give a chance to fight for your freedom."

The human woman slowly holstered her weapon.

"Perhaps by the end of it, you will have earned the right to die as men and not the dogs you are."

She stopped by the bundle of clothes. She picked up a white jacket with black and gold trim and held it out for them to see.

"If you choose to join my crew, you must wear this uniform. These are colours of freedom. Once you put on this uniform, you can only take it off when you are dead or when our mission is done."

She handed the jacket to a waiting raider. He took the garment and solemnly folded it, before laying it back onto the bundle.

The human woman paced the line of batarians again.

"There is one rule to remember aboard my ship: my word is law.

"Break the law and you get shot.

"Fail to follow my orders, you get shot.

"Try to desert, you get shot."

Without another word, the human woman walked off, headed to the cargo hold. The quarian and turian followed her.

* * *

"Those that did not join her, she locked up in the cargo hold," the slaver captain snarled. "Then she must have sent out the distress signal and released those vermin."

One of the batarians, who was listening in on the story, laughed suddenly. "That human bitch spoke softly but damn did she carry a big gun," he muttered after his mirth had faded.

"Did she say what her mission was?" Kaidan asked the slaver captain.

The captain shook his head viciously.

"Can you give me a description of what she looked like?" he pressed.

The captain sneered. "You humans all look the same to me," he growled. "You all smell the same too." His lips peeled back with distaste. "Like vorcha shit."

Aisha backhanded the captain with the butt of her rifle. Kaidan shot her a warning glare and she lowered her weapon and saluted stiffly if a bit sullenly.

Kaidan felt a tap on his armoured forearm. He looked down; a young boy of ten years looked up at him. The lad looked less gaunt than the others. And his eyes were alive with some emotion – even if it was wariness. He must have been fresh meat; recently captured.

"Do you know Admiral Hackett, mister?" the boy asked quietly. He spoke in a hushed tone as if afraid that other people would overhear him.

Kaidan knelt down so he could look the boy in the eyes. "He's my boss. Are you related to him?" he answered.

Even as he asked the question, Kaidan discounted it. Slavers picked easy targets along the fringes of the Terminus Systems. As a confirmation, the boy solemnly shook his head.

"The lady with the gun said to give him a message," he whispered as if he was sharing a secret.

Kaidan leaned closer. He tried to make his face as trustworthy as possible. "You can tell me the message and I will tell him."

"She said that it was very important that Admiral Hackett gets the message," the boy responded, insistent but unsure.

Kaidan held up his hand as if swearing an oath. "I'll make sure he gets it. I promise," he assured the boy.

The boy nodded, gnawing on his lip nervously. His voice dropped even lower. He looked scared to death. He trembled so much that Kaidan reached out with a hand to steady him.

"She said to tell him: 'The Reapers are coming.'"


End file.
